Instagram has come a long way since the days when it was merely a platform for interacting with other people. Now, it has become a commercial marketplace for companies to advertise their products and services to their targeted audiences which use the platform. How do they do this? Many companies are using high-ranking members of the website called "Instagram Influencers" to do their marketing for them.

Influencers are trusted, well-respected Instagram users who have thousands or even millions of followers. This means that whatever product or service recommendations they make to their following will often result in major profits for that respective business.

Companies are not the only ones seeing huge returns on their advertising investments. The influencers themselves have invested thousands of dollars to turn their Instagram accounts into advertising agencies. One famous example of this is when two 19-year-olds named Drew Lauinger and Nick Ravid created a business out of building up their Instagram accounts and then advertising to their followers for various companies

"Being social media influencers has opened many doors for us...allowing us to succeed in running an advertising agency, as well as seeing big success with our e-commerce and dropshipping ventures," Lauinger said.

Since beginning in 2016, Lauinger and Ravid have accumulated over 10 million followers on Instagram. They legitimized the business by forming a legal company name for it, Sway Media Group. It serves as an advertiser for companies from a variety of different industries. Sway has curated posts for hundreds of different businesses to increase their corporate brand awareness, mobile app downloads, online product sales, and so much more.

"Our model has the ability to amass followers and sales at an incredible rate," Ravid stated. "our services are much more cost-effective for our clients than those of our competitors."

Companies who hire Sway Media are saving up to 70% on their normal advertising costs, which would have otherwise been spent on traditional marketing schemes. Sway is producing up to six figures a month in revenue for some of their clients. Not only is influencer marketing a cheaper route for businesses, it's generating a better return on their investments, too.

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